jewels and blood everywhere (Jade, Day 9)

Jade watched in horror as in one swift motion Perdita Leto's head was cut clean off. She watched, as if frozen in time, as the head fell from the girl and onto the ground in front of her feet. If she would have had any last words, they couldn't be spoken now. Jade had taken that from her, even if she hadn't meant to. Jade had meant to kill the girl, it was true. That's what each of them were here for, and Perdita had certainly tried to kill her. Even so, she hadn't really meant to cut off her head and silence her in an instant. She gave the girl no time, no opportunity for witty comebacks, or taunting. She was just silenced, and suddenly Jade wondered if even the Capitol could put the girl back together again. Instinctively, she took a step back, her feet stumbled and she caught herself before she had fallen among the jewels. She took a deep, yet shaky breath.

More than anything, she wanted to distance herself from what just happened. She heard a noise, a yowl noise, and something run off into the distance, but she didn't know what it was. Perhaps it was a good thing it was not a mutt there to tear out her throat, because for the moment Jade was still in shock. She wanted to disassociate herself from the scene in front of her. She wanted to pretend that Perdita hadn't existed, that she hadn't just cut off her head, that she had been nothing all along, but she shook her head. She couldn't do that anymore, because she'd promised Arabella Shirley. She deserved to feel it. She couldn't run from it anymore. She'd taken three lives now, and one of them no longer had a head.

Maybe she would be back tomorrow. Perdita Leto still wore white, though it was quickly changing colors as the blood fell and her body collapsed. If the Capitol could perform a miracle, perhaps they could bring her back to life, back to fight whoever else died today in the Catacombs tomorrow and then maybe she'd back for Jade Morin, she'd want to rip her to shreds, she was certain. She forced herself to look at the fallen girl. She would not run away again. Then, she took a step forward and as she had done with both Ezra and Arabella, she placed Perdita's hands in the same position her own had been while in the Catacombs. She grabbed one of the crossbow bolts and put it in one of Perdita's hands. She tried to ignore the fact that her head lay elsewhere.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, even though she knew Perdita couldn't hear her.

Jade stood back up and grabbed Perdita's bag. There were plenty of medical supplies in there. Good enough to last her a little bit longer than her own stock did. She took those items and threw them in her own bag. She felt an unfamiliar fabric, and she took it out of the bag to discover that the other girl carried a tent with her and suddenly Jade was filled with a sense of relief. It would be far more comfortable once she was able to settle in that night. The cold winds would no longer be able to reach her when she was hidden within a tent. She began to take some things out of her own bag in order to make room for the tent and new supplies. That's when something caught her attention. At the girl's feet, stained with some blood there was something else. Jade bent down and picked up the postcards.

For now, she wouldn't look at them. Instead, she simply threw those in her bag as well and began to walk far away from the bloody scene. There was nothing more she could do here. It was time to rest and wait for a new day, because she had no idea what came next or how many people were still alive.